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Concept of Consciousness In Jainism
Philosophy is the root cause of origination and development of science, because philosophy gives ideas for inventions and experiments. But there is a basic difference between science and philosophy; science has made its field of experiments on matter (pudgala) only, whereas philosophy has much wider field of knowledge and formless entities like soul. If we think about the concept of Consciousness according to the various branches of science, then consciousness can be defined as the activity of sense-organs, mind, brain and the cells, on one hand and when consciousness is defined according to Jaina philosophy then it is an attribute of a soul, which could not be known through the empirical or materialistic instruments on the other hand. Consciousness and soul
The word 'consciousness' is used mainly in two meanings – 1. Alertness (awareness) 2. Feeling of livingness (cetanā). In Jainism 'apramāda' word is used in the sense of alertness and 'upayoga', 'prāņa', 'sañjňā' for the feeling of livingness. In Jainism, a soul is considered as the ultimate source of consciousness. Consciousness is the very nature of a soul with or without body. If the soul departs from the body, sense organs and brain do not work; the body is called dead. So it is a question for the scientists that how the consciousness arises and how it vanishes. Where does it come from and where does it go? Except the Cārvāka thinkers, all the branches of Indian philosophy accept a concept of soul which is the source
